Bill 101: Will census data make the law even tougher?

Census data for 2011 released Wednesday by Statistics Canada suggests that French remains the dominant language in Quebec, with four out of five people speaking it regularly at home.

But bilingualism in this province is on the rise, and a minuscule but nevertheless undeniable drop in the proportion of Quebecers who say French is their first language – a dip of less than one per cent – will likely raise the ire of language activists who say the numbers are proof that French is slowly but steadily being eroded by the waves of a sea of English.

Will these numbers add to Quebec’s ever smouldering linguistic tensions? Jack Jedwab, head of the Association of Canadian Studies, already gave montrealgazette.com his take on what we might expect from the census numbers.

Click on the orange icon below to hear what he said once those numbers were revealed.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.